"Gender recognition at the crossroads: Four models and the compass of comparative law" - Q and A with Dr Stefano Osella
Join us for the first session of the Feminist Jurisprudence Discussion Group's Reading Club. We will be discussing the following article:
Stefano Osella, Ruth Rubio-Marín, Gender recognition at the crossroads: Four models and the compass of comparative law, International Journal of Constitutional Law, Volume 21, Issue 2, April 2023, Pages 574–602.
The article explores the different constitutional developments of the right to gender recognition and discusses their potential to protect trans and nonbinary people. Focusing on a few selected jurisdictions, each incarnating a specific kind of recognition system, it also proposes a conceptual map to understand and identify the different shapes of such a right. The article argues that four types of gender recognition can be identified, each with their own characteristics, advantages, peculiarities, and set of challenges for trans and nonbinary people and for the system of gender categorization itself. In clarifying this area of law, the article contends that the very process of creation and policing of gender identities and categories represents a critical aspect of contemporary gender constitutionalism.
We will be joined by one of the co-authors, Dr. Stefano Osella for the discussion, to discuss the article and associated themes. No registration needed, join us on Teams here.
About the Speaker - Dr. Stefano Osella
Dr. Stefano Osella is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong. He is a comparative public lawyer with wide-ranging interests in socio-legal theory, law and anthropology, human (particularly socio-economic) rights, and gender and the law. His primary focus is on the ways gender identity and sexual orientation are embedded and presupposed in constitutional law.
Stefano obtained his LLB and MA in law at the University of Turin, Italy. He continued his education at the University of Oxford, where he earned a Magister Juris, and at the European University Institute, where he obtained his doctorate in comparative law. Before joining HKU, Stefano worked as a postdoc at NYU Law School, where he was a Hauser Postdoctoral Fellow, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale (Germany), and Bocconi University in Milan (Italy).